Category: *In English

In the meantime in the Netherlands

Last week, a fundamental reform of the basic legislation, including company and insolvency law, in Belgium was announced (De grote sprong voorwaarts: een nieuw BW, een hervormd ondernemings- en insolventierecht, een nieuw vennootschaps- en verenigingsrecht en de opheffing van het W.Kh.).

The Belgian legislator is not the only legislator planning reforms. Also last week, the Dutch Minister of Justice has announced a further modernisation of company law (Voortgang modernisering ondernemingsrecht).

Finally, the Corporate Governance Code Monitoring Committee has published the revised Dutch Corporate Governance Code. The Code 2016 can be read here. Dutch listed companies are required to report in 2018 on compliance with the revised Code in the 2017 financial year. The condition for this is that the revised Code must be enshrined in Dutch law by the cabinet in 2017.

Shareholders’ rights in EU companies: it’s the long-term, stupid!

On 9 December 2016, the EU’s committee of permanent representatives (COREPER) endorsed an agreement between the Slovak presidency and European Parliament representatives to strengthen shareholders engagement in big European companies (read, here). The agreement will encourage transparent and active engagement by shareholders of listed companies through a revision of the existing Shareholders’ Rights Directive (2007/36/EC). Continue reading “Shareholders’ rights in EU companies: it’s the long-term, stupid!”

Insider trading – Salman v. United States

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On 6 December 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled in favor of prosecutors in an insider trading case, saying that gifts of confidential information from business executives to relatives violate securities laws.  Continue reading “Insider trading – Salman v. United States”

Organisational contracts: rethinking the European paradigm

Contract law is out of touch, scholars argue – but why? A post by guest blogger Joeri De Smet

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Arguably, contracts are quintessential in the operation of the modern economy. Scholarly attention across many disciplines accordingly is abundant. In law as well, contracts are amply studied. Most of the work on contracts, however, remains doctrinal, discovering developments and trends within the current system of current law. In Belgium, this system has not fundamentally changed for the last two hundred years, but even on the European level, contract law seldom undergoes radical changes. Over the course of time, parties in a contract build up a common interest, a “going concern value”. In European contract law, there are insufficient safeguards to protect this value. Concerning the performance of obligations, parties are only required to do just that, not to cooperate, and there is no general system to adapt existing provisions to previously unknown circumstances. Concerning termination, there is no way for a party to leave the contractual framework without destroying it (through resolution or unilateral notice), along with its going concern value Some scholars are trying to move beyond this frame of reference and argue that current contract law is not adapted to real-life economic needs. They propose a new outlook on contract law, under the umbrella of organisational contracts. In this contribution, I briefly define and set out the key elements of what is understood as an organisational contract. Continue reading “Organisational contracts: rethinking the European paradigm”

Uncitral Working Group on Insolvency Law

The fiftieth session of Working Group V (Insolvency Law) will take place in Vienna from Monday 12 to Friday 16 December 2016. The delegates will discuss draft legislative provisions regarding the cross-border insolvency of multinational enterprise groups and the recognition and enforcement of insolvency-related judgments. For more information, see here.

Corporations or shareholders: who to tax?

Corporate tax rates are currently subject to a race-to-the-bottom between the Member States of the European Union. The latest Member State to announce a reduction of its statutory tax rate (to a, from a Belgian perspective, stunning 9%) is Hungary (read here). Theresa May has set the goal for the UK to keep its status as having the lowest corporation tax rate among the G20 group of countries (read here).

Continue reading “Corporations or shareholders: who to tax?”

Supply Chain Liability: a Primer

A post by guest blogger Penelope Bergkamp

Supply chain liability is the liability of a company for a harm caused by its business partners. Until recently, this was merely an academic theory. It no longer is: we are beginning to see court cases on supply chain liability, and more such claims will likely be filed. Continue reading “Supply Chain Liability: a Primer”

Do ‘Centros’ and ‘Inspire Art’ apply to trusts?

Trusts and the freedom of establishment: a bad marriage?

In a previous post we tackled the question whether the common law trust may be regarded as a ‘legal entity’. We concluded that this was rather doubtful.

Nevertheless, in the Olsen-case (7 July 2014), to which we referred in our earlier blogpost, the EFTA-Court ruled that a trust, as an entity, may fall within the scope of Articles 31 and 40 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area (‘EEA-Agreement’). The practical consequence of this ruling was that trusts may come under the scope of the so-called freedom of establishment and the free movement of capital in the EEA (and therefore also in the EU).   Continue reading “Do ‘Centros’ and ‘Inspire Art’ apply to trusts?”

New EU rules for the recovery and resolution of Central Counterparties (CCP’s)

Today (28/11/2016) the European Commission proposed new rules to ensure that systemic market infrastructures in the financial system, known as Central Counterparties (CCPs, see http://ec.europa.eu/finance/financial-markets/ccp-resolution/index_en.htm), can be dealt with effectively when things go wrong. Continue reading “New EU rules for the recovery and resolution of Central Counterparties (CCP’s)”

Proposal for a Directive on preventive restructuring frameworks, second chance and measures to increase the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and discharge procedures and amending Directive 2012/30/EU

The proposal of the European Commission, and additional information, can be consulted here. A detailed analysis of this proposal will follow shortly.

Breaking news: press conference on European insolvency proposal

This afternoon, European Commissioner Věra Jourová will give a press conference on the European insolvency proposal. See here.

Secutarization and post-crisis financial regulation

The technique of securitization was at the heart of the financial crisis (for a primer on securitization, read here). Originally a sound instrument to mitigate risk, the standards of the securitization process degraded in the years leading up to the financial crisis, which contributed to excessive credit growth in and outside of the formal banking system (read here).  Continue reading “Secutarization and post-crisis financial regulation”

Past and future of bankruptcy

In a recent insightful paper, professor Mark Roe (Harvard) reflects on the past and future of bankruptcy. Three ages of bankruptcy are identified and linked to underlying market-based phenomena and institutional conditions (comp., R. Clark, “The Interdisciplinary Study of Legal Evolution”, Yale Law Journal 1981, pp. 1238-1274). The paper also looks forward. New market trends are identified that will shape the future of bankruptcy law. The paper can be read here.

Towards a European covered bond framework

On 18 November 2016, the European Banking Authority (EBA) will be holding a public hearing to outline its draft proposals on the European covered bond framework. A presentation with the outline of the draft proposals on recommended further actions can be consulted here. The EBA report on covered bonds of July 2014, which identified best practices to enhance robustness of the covered bond regulation across the EU, can be read here.

Stealing Deposits: Deposit Insurance, Risk-Taking and the Removal of Market Discipline in Early 20th Century Banks

In a recent paper C.Calomiris (Columbia) and M. Jaremski (Colgate) argue that deposit insurance can reduce liquidity risk, but also can increase insolvency risk by encouraging reckless behavior.

By investigating state deposit insurance experiments in the United States of the early 20th century, they find the introduction of deposit insurance may have actually increased systemic risk, instead of mitigating it (see https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2016/11/11/stealing-deposits-deposit-insurance-risk-taking-and-the-removal-of-market-discipline-in-early-20th-century-banks).

The paper also argues that economic models that attempt to explain the attraction of deposit insurance may be less relevant than political ones.